Yes, you heard that right! You can now code in PHP without having to write a single line of code '" amazing, right? The application that makes this possible is called Lemon ADE, and it runs on the iPad. In this post I'll go over how Lemon ADE works, and I have also recorded a short video demonstrating coding with the app.

The tool is an abstract syntax tree editor and parses the blocks on-screen down into valid PHP code. You define operations, variables, functions, etc and the result can be pushed out to an FTP server for execution (nope, nothing local). You can watch his video demonstration here.

The hottest device out there right now seems to be the iPad. iPad this, iPad that, iPod your mom. I'm underwhelmed with the device but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to account for such devices on the websites I create.

He includes three ways to get the job done by matching against the User Agent sent by the browser - Javascript, PHP and with an .htaccess file for an Apache server. As one commenter points out, though, you need to be sure if you already have a redirect on the word "mobile", the iPad's User Agent contains that too.

I see the iPad (and the non-Apple alternatives that already exist or are on the way) as a game changer. It brings new ways of consuming content and will reach audiences that the laptop has never reached. [...] In any case, the iPad is a game changer. What does this mean for the web and for tech companies such as us? First, it's nice to see that Apple is pushing open standards heavily with the iPad. [...] Second, the typical architecture behind most iPad apps (and other mobile applications for that matter) is to have a thin client on the device, and a rich API as the backend.

Ivo talks about the one of the key pieces of technology behind it all - the API that your service provides for iPad/iPod applications too hook into. Without a well-built, solid API to interface with, your application can be world class but not be very useful at all.